Easiest way to sidechain everything to kick and snare?

So I am told to make the kick and snare prominent in the mix, one must sidechain everything to them. I'm wondering if there is a quick and practical way of doing this in Ableton, I assume with the compressor? Cheers.

If that bass of yours is sub then you could EQ the kick a bit or just sidechain kick to bass, the snare shouldn't affect bass at all. But from my experience, I'd say a good EQing or mixdown does the job as well, if not better. But then again it is very subjective. After all it's about what do you want to achieve in the end, how it should sound in your head.

If that bass of yours is sub then you could EQ the kick a bit or just sidechain kick to bass, the snare shouldn't affect bass at all. But from my experience, I'd say a good EQing or mixdown does the job as well, if not better. But then again it is very subjective. After all it's about what do you want to achieve in the end, how it should sound in your head.

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Yes, I have a sub and a reese type bass going on. Thanks for the advice.

oh and btw if you got long mid reecey sounds going throughout the track then you might want to drop a few dbs (in EQ) from the reese according to which frequencies the snare hits most, the punchy frequencies. It should instantly make sound clearer.

oh and btw if you got long mid reecey sounds going throughout the track then you might want to drop a few dbs (in EQ) from the reese according to which frequencies the snare hits most, the punchy frequencies. It should instantly make sound clearer.

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Yeah man definitely. Dropped a few db and put a low pass filter on it. Was taking away from the sub too much. Cheers.

sidechaining in ableton is ridiculously easy. Put a compressor on the sound you want to sidechain, next to the on / off button in the top left of the compressor there is a little triangle. Click that and it'll open up a sidechain button. Highlight that, then underneath there is a drop down list to choose the signal you want to trigger the sidechain. I'f you're using a drum rack to create your beats, choose the drum rack, then underneath is a second drop down tab, click that and choose your kick drum. turn down the threshold a bit and listen to the sidechain take effect in all it's wonderous glory!

sidechaining is definately a very delicate tool, can really help breaks tear through and stuff but can sound really obvious and tacky if its overdone. always worth a try if u think it might create an effect youre after though. i usually use it as a creative thing rather than a mixing thing tbh